Moonlight
by WikketKrikket
Summary: On a dark winter night, when the moon is full, someone is going to end up hurt. It all comes down to the choice of who. Drabble Author name changed from Waffles4eva


-1A/N: This is almost a tribute to Hatori-san's other manga '_Millennium Snow'. _For those who have read it, you'll get why. If you haven't, well, I won't ruin it but you will probably guess. :P Not that Mill. Snow has anything to do with this at all…This is just a little piece written purely for the sake of it, anyway. Satsuki and Tamaki love! Ha ha…

Moonlight

Outside, the air was cold with a bitter pinch to it, and the moonlight was cold too. It was beautiful, in a strange way, the silver light that seemed almost to be made of the frost that would surely form as the night got darker and colder. It was late. Far too late to still be at school, in Haruhi's opinion, but that's what you got for being in the Host Club.

They had been having their 'winter festival'. In some ways, it had been fun- they had been skating on a frozen lake in the school grounds; and once Haruhi had gotten round the fact that the school had a lake- even a small one- she had quite enjoyed it. Particularly as the others had all, including the customers, assumed the commoner would not be able to skate. Even Haruhi had been to an ice-rink from time to time. Anyway, the winter nights were drawing in early, so they had rigged up some fairy lights and had been able to skate for much longer. It had actually looked nice, something- in Haruhi's opinion- finally in good taste. Then there had been hot drinks and the inevitable snowball fights, more skating, and all the accompanying antics. In the end, it had gone on long into the night.

Finally, however, it was over; and as the full moon looked down, they were in the third music room packing away fairy lights into boxes and, for Haruhi at least, longing to go home. They worked together quietly. Even Tamaki was silent, gazing out at the moon. He was holding fairy lights, but his hands hadn't moved in a good few minutes. This was not like his usual sulks. Somehow, he seemed very far away. Almost too far to be reached.

"Senpai? Are you alright?" Haruhi asked.

No reply. He didn't seem to hear.

"Tamaki, you're being spoken to." Kyouya frowned. "…Tamaki?" He strode forward and shook his friend roughly by the shoulder. "Tamaki!"

Tamaki finally looked up. His eyes seemed slightly glazed. "Ah, Kyouya… are you alright?"

"Pay attention." Kyouya snapped at him. "…Are you wearing it?"

"Of course I…" Tamaki lifted up his arm to show him, and realised he wasn't. He stared stupidly at his arm for a moment, and then at Kyouya.

"What?" Hikaru asked, coming closer. "That silver bracelet thing you always wear?"

"Maybe it fell off outside?" Kaoru asked.

Tamaki didn't seem to hear them. "…Kyouya…" He whispered, fearfully.

Somehow, that one word was scarier than anything else that happened that night. Kyouya recovered himself.

"Everyone out. Now."

"What?" Haruhi asked. "What's wrong?"

"_Out_!" Kyouya insisted, grabbing the twins by the collars and dragging them towards the door. The twins immediately resisted.

"Hey, hey!"

"What the hell is going on?!"

"Mori-senpai." Kyouya said, and in an instant, Mori had gathered up the twins. Struggling against him would have been like trying to kick down a tree. Meanwhile, Honey grabbed hold of Haruhi's wrist in an iron grip. They literally ran from the room and did not stop until they were outside the building.

Kyouya shut the door behind them. Then he turned to face what remained of his friend.

"…Idiot."

As if it could understand the insult, the wolf snarled, and leapt across the room.

Those outside knew very little, or nothing, of this. Mori dumped them outside the school doors and ran back inside without a word. Honey, unusually serious, looked back over his shoulder as he ran after his taller cousin.

"Take Haru-chan home, okay?!" He demanded. "And don't look back!"

"Don't look back?!" Hikaru echoed. "What the hell does-"

But the martial artists had gone, followed by the heavy clang of the doors slamming shut. They would not be opening again from their side.

For a moment, the three stood in silence, watching their breath fog before them and rise towards the pale moon. The twins looked at each other, and then turned to Haruhi.

"Haruhi…" Kaoru said, quietly. "You can get home alright, can't you?"

"What's happening?!" Haruhi immediately demanded.

"We don't know." Hikaru answered frustrated. "But it looks like Tono and the others might be in trouble- we're going to go help. Head home, okay?"

"I'm not just leaving!" Haruhi snapped back. "I'm worried too!"

"Haruhi-!"

They were interrupted by the smashing of glass. The window above them, the window of the Third Music Room, shattered; though exploded seemed a more appropriate word. Glass fragments fell like snow in the silver moonlight.

That was reinforced, bullet-proof glass. It was not supposed to shatter, but it did. The fragments fell, the werewolf among it all. Separating Haruhi from her friends.

"W-what…?" Haruhi said. "Is that… Tamaki-senpai? But…" She swallowed. "How…?"

"Haruhi!" Hikaru called, desperately, but it was too late. The wolf began to slowly advance towards her. She wheeled backwards.

"It is, isn't it?" She whispered. "It's Tamaki-senpai…"

The wolf bared it's teeth. They were long and serrated. It drew back it's tongue to snarl, the flesh nicked and torn as it brushed over the fangs. Blood seemed to fill it's mouth, and feed it's frenzy.

"Get away from her!" Came a shout from behind, accompanied by a ball of ice and snow. It was all the twins could find, and it made no difference. The wolf still advanced on Haruhi, slowly, savouring the moment. Fear began to show in her eyes, and she back-pedalled faster; but she could not risk turning away.

They needed a new plan. They were scared, confused, and had no idea what was going on. They would have to take their chances head-on.

"We said… get away!"

The charge was short-lived. The wolf gave a small yelp of surprise and swatted them away with a swipe that knocked Hikaru straight into one of the metal benches and dented it, while Kaoru was thrown to the floor. He didn't move.

Perhaps the wolf would have turned on them instead. That would have been the instinctual thing to do, and Haruhi knew it. So she cried out. She cried out- no words exactly, just a yell, and the wolf turned back to her, remembered her scent, and resumed it's slow, stealthy progression. Maybe a pounce would be quicker. But the fear made the scent so sweet.

Haruhi was scared. Terrified in fact, of course she was. But there was some logical, functional part of her mind that was approaching this entirely detachedly. It could not cope with _explaining _the werewolf and so simply accepted it. It also knew that she was quite possibly going to die and that breaking down about it was not going to get her out of it.

And… wasn't this beast still, somewhere, Tamaki?

"Tamaki-senpai." She tried. "Listen to me."  
The creature kept coming. Haruhi felt her back press against the wall.

"Tamaki-senpai!" She shouted, as firmly as she could. "Stop this! I… I'm scared! You're scaring me, senpai! What kind of host are you?!"

For a second she thought something had got through to him. Just for a second. And then a clawed limb came rushing up impossibly fast towards her.

For Haruhi, however, time seemed to slow down. Maybe she could dodge. Maybe, if she did, he would slam into the wall behind her and stun himself, and she could hit him with something.

But… she would know what she was doing. He was out of control.

And she was out of time.

But the clawed hand- paw- reaching towards her never arrived as it was meant to. There was a loud cracking sound. The wolf tumbled forward, blood on it's back.

Kyouya stood behind him, face bleeding from three sculpted wounds dragged across his cheek. He held a small, smoking, gun.

The wolf slumped forward onto now human-knees. He sagged as the fur faded. The wound congealed and closed. Tamaki fell forwards.

Kyouya pulled her out.

"Are you alright?" He asked, urgently. "Did he bite you?! Haruhi?"

Tamaki fell face-down in the snow.

"You shot him!" Hikaru shouted, having untangled himself from the bench and hauled his brother up. They were both pale, and seemed to be in pain. Honey and Mori reappeared, and stood, frozen at the scene. Honey's arm hung limp at his side. And Tamaki lay still in the snow.

"You shot him!" Hikaru repeated, the accusation hanging in the cool, quiet, air.

"…I had to." Kyouya said, quietly.

"Had to?! Had to?! What the hell-!"

"He made me promise!" Kyouya shouted, suddenly showing the strain of the evening's events. "_He _gave me the gun!"

"…Kyouya-senpai. What's going on?" Haruhi asked, staring at Tamaki's body.

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_Kyouya's life had certainly become more exhausting since Tamaki had entered it. Almost every weekend, Tamaki had _insisted _on going to one or another tourist sites around the country, even abroad. Some weeks he wouldn't, but only about once a month or so._

_Kyouya had never connected these dates with the full moon. If he had, perhaps he would have thought it odd that no excuse came that weekend. But he didn't, so they went ahead, and he agreed to spend the night at Tamaki's home. To be fair to him, he had found more respect for Tamaki since the day Kyouya had basically upended a table over him, and Tamaki had suggested some ridiculous club._

_He had thought that a turning point in their friendship. Maybe it was. But not as much as this._

_The moon was full tonight, and Tamaki had not realised. When he saw it looming outside the window, he stared as if it had surprised him._

_"It's a full moon tonight…?"_

_"Didn't you know? All the girls at school were talking about it. They think you can read fortunes from it. Ridiculous, but if you're serious about this club it-"_

_"Kyouya!" He said, urgently, shoving him towards the door. "Get out! Now! Lock the door behind you!"_

_"Tamaki, what're you-?"_

_Tamaki suddenly stopped, gasping, grasping at his stomach. "Go…" He urged. His voice changed. It sounded deep, and scratched, and it changed to a growl._

_It was too late that day. He changed before Kyouya's eyes. _

_He watched as he transformed. He watched as ten, twelve of the servants came and drove the wolf away by any means necessary, with electric shocks and tasers. It was brutal. It was all they could do._

_The wolf was locked in a special room where it could damage nothing but itself. There were no windows. No moonlight. But tonight the wolf had the scent of people in it's nostrils. Tonight, Tamaki hospitalised himself._

_And when Kyouya came to visit him, he cried and cried. Because there was a reason he had never had a friend in France. There was a reason no-one had ever come back._

_But, as Kyouya pointed out, compared to most of the nonsense Tamaki spouted, this was altogether normal. _

_And when Tamaki managed to stop crying, he had given Kyouya something. A little derringer, with a silver bullet._

_Silver. Kyouya knew. The only way to kill a werewolf._

_"Promise me." Tamaki had begged. "If I'm ever going to hurt someone, or if I'm ever going to… make them like me, you have to use it. Promise me, Kyouya!"_

_Kyouya had nodded. Just once._

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Tamaki lay on the ground, still. The others stood around, their breath the tell-tale sign of life. They listened in silence.

"He…" Haruhi began, and got no further. Really, what was there to say?

"…We should take him inside." Honey said, and gently turned Tamaki over. His face was almost blue with cold already. His eyes were shut.

And then, to everyone's immense surprise, they opened.

He blinked in disorientation and confusion.

"…What's going on?"

Kyouya reached him first. Tamaki's shirt had been destroyed in the transformation, so Kyouya just hauled him into a sitting position by the neck.

"You're supposed to be dead!"

"Eh?"  
"You-!" Kyouya cursed. "You made me think the bullet would kill you!"

"You had to use the bullet…? Did I transform…?"

"Tamaki!"

"Oh- nope! Just changes me back!"

"You-! Do you know how much trouble you could have saved?!"

"Trouble…?" Tamaki seemed to wake up properly then, losing his dazed look. "Kyouya… you're hurt…" He straightened up. Saw Honey's arm. Saw the state the twins were in. Saw Haruhi's face. "Everyone…" Fear crept into his voice. "Oh, no… no… I didn't… I didn't bite anyone…?! Please… I didn't…"

"No, you didn't." Kyouya dismissed. "Now get inside you fool, before I really do kill you."  
Tamaki did not go. He stared downwards.

"Everyone… I'm sorry… I'm sorry I had to keep this secret… I was just scared that you would… just- just- don't have anything more to do with me!"

"Idiot!" Haruhi snapped. "You think we're going to let you deal with that alone?! When are you going to realise we're not going to leave?! When we thought you were dead just now, it… Why would we choose to split up?!"

"Besides," Hikaru said, giving a weak smile. "You're only dangerous every few weeks now, right?"

"I suppose I am… I lost my bracelet." Tamaki remembered, miserably. "The silver stopped me transforming…"

"Eh, senpai…" Haruhi said slowly. "Don't you have a whole silver bullet inside you, now?"  
Tamaki looked up at her. And he smiled.

So his breathing would never quite settle down, and he'd have pain from time to time. So he would never run a marathon. But he would never have to hurt anyone again, either. He had nothing more to hide.

Everything was going to be fine. Because he didn't feel like a monster anymore.

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End file.
